On her previous releases, Julianna Barwick has composed ethereal soundscapes out of loops and other atmospheric sounds with little, if any, input from anyone else. While those works are definite explorations of Barwick’s imaginative look at the world, last year’s Nepenthe takes her away from her comfort zone, literally and figuratively, as she traveled to Iceland to work with Sigur Rós collaborator Alex Somers to create a more extravagant album that is simultaneously deft and deeply mesmerizing. Braving the winter climates once again, Barwick takes a moment during her current North American tour to talk to Wrestling with Pop Culture.
On Nepenthe, you’ve gone from recording alone in your bedroom to traveling to Iceland to work with Alex Somers. How did that collaboration come about?
Alex Somers makes music with Jónsi as Jónsi & Alex to make Riceboy Sleeps and things like that. He also mixes and records and is heavily involved with Sigur Rós, but he’s not an official member of Sigur Rós. But I got an email three years ago from Alex and it said, “I really like your stuff. Would you ever want to do anything?” I immediately responded and said, “Yes!” We talked for about a year and made plans for me to come to Iceland and make the record. So that’s how it started, with an email. I went over there twice, in February for a couple weeks and in April for six weeks. I was finishing up touring for The Magic Place in 2011 and Alex and I were talking all year. Then we made plans to work on it at the beginning of 2012.
Speaking of The Magic Place, it’s about a tree from your childhood that, in your mind, had rooms and other magical features. Your work is dominated by themes of seeing more than what is physically visible, and the ambient approach you take allows the listener to do the same thing with your music, especially on Nepenthe. Is this a sense you’re trying to convey to your listeners or is that just the way your creative mind works?
Photo by Shawn Brackbill.
I’ve just always had a deep love of imagination and things that are magical, or feel magical, like that tree when I was a kid. Things that are full of wonder, I really like things like that. Maybe it comes from my love of things that are magical. I’ve always had a pretty good imagination and I think that comes in handy when you’re sort of tapped into your own world and making your own stuff.
Nepenthe is fleshed out a little more than your previous work, with a lot of additional musicians and the influence of your Icelandic surroundings. How much would you say this unfamiliar environment affected the sound of the album, given that you usually work alone in your bedroom or smaller studio?
It made a huge, huge difference. That’s why when I started work on recreating these songs live for the tour, it was pretty daunting. With the previous albums, I made them 100 percent on my own, basically bedroom style. With this record I had Alex producing, Amiina playing strings, Icelandic teenage girls singing with me and Robbie from múm playing guitar. So it was pretty much the antithesis from the way I’d made my other albums. It was completely different and it was a dream come true to go to a place like Iceland that I have always been curious about and work with someone like Alex, who just made the producer/songwriter relationship such a smooth and easy one. The record is music that I came up with while I was in Iceland. Everything was written there, so it’s very much a specific moment in time. Amiina and Robbie from múm contributed, but they improvised. We didn’t tell them what to play. It was almost like this magical collaborative thing. We had one day in the studio with Amiina doing string and they just listened and felt it and came up with the music right there. That’s just kind of the way this record was made. It was really intuitive for everyone. I could not have even come close to making the record sound the way it does by myself. It took all these other people lending their talents and their time.
On the song “One Half,” there are audible lyrics. I believe this is the first time you’ve released a song in this way. What was the reason for doing that on that particular song?
Photo by Shawn Brackbill.
“One Half” is actually the only caveat to what I just said about every single thing being made in Iceland. “One Half” is the one pre-existing song. I used to perform it in a different way. I made that song up years ago off the top of my head and those are the lyrics that popped out when I sang it. I just wanted to get that song on record somehow. I thought about changing the lyrics, but it’s not too lyric driven anyway. They don’t really have a meaning, or maybe they do. They’re kind of mysterious, so I just decided to keep them.
You’re playing at museums, churches and non-traditional venues such as the Goat Farm in Atlanta on this tour. Why is that? How did you go about choosing the venues for this tour?
I’ve been working with my booking agent for almost five years. I was really interested in playing non-traditional venues for this record and she reached out to the right people and it worked out. I definitely wanted to not be playing your average medium-sized rock club. I wanted to play in unusual places. I thought it would be more interesting or me and for the people seeing the show.